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The Last Of Us Combat: Singular Quality Over Quantity

We have a few in-game screenshots and while there's no video besides the amazing debut trailer as of yet, all gamers are asking the same question: what will the gameplay and combat be like in The Last Of Us?

The answer is actually a lot more interesting than you may have anticipated. According to what Naughty Dog told Game Informer, they're striving to make every encounter in the game feel urgent and desperate.

Game director Bruce Straley and creative director Neil Druckmann "wanted to push enemy AI beyond the standard mindless henchman," and they also intend to "evolve the companion AI" of Ellie. Watch the entire interview to learn more, but the gist is this: while it may not be classified as survival/horror in terms of gameplay, The Last Of Us seems to feature a modern-day take on the concept of virtual survival. And if they want to make every battle "leave a lasting impression," they're going to have to focus on one thing: fear.

Comments (16 posts)

Sounds great, I was recently trying to pin down just why Uncharted 3 didn't impress quite like the first two and one of the things I noted was that the standard mindless enemy types from the last two games hadn't changed at all.

Out of all the reasons that Uncharted 3 didn't feel as good as 2, the enemy AI wasn't one of them. Uncharted's AI isn't even that bad, anyway. At least the enemies take cover and move around, unlike some other games where all they are programmed to do is rush you in droves.

@Sir; I can hardly agree with your statement. AI awareness was truly lacking in UC3, despite the fact that I really don't get why anyone would consider the game inferior to the previous two installments.

You can easily sneak up on enemies from dispositions that shouldn't be considered nonchalant whatsoever.

In terms of UC3, I thought it was an amazing game. Perhaps short, yes, but it was far from a shortcoming to me.

Uncharted 3 lies in the 8-10 hour range, while 2 was in the 10-12 hour range. Demon, I never said the AI was perfect, I just said that it isn't exactly bad enough to detract from the experience, at least not as glaring as the game's other shortcomings.

Well not only that, but UC3 had more major events happening in a shorter amount of time, whilst in UC2 a lot did happen but it was spread accordingly without any questions in between.

The AI in UC3 was funny, when Sully was carrying wounded Charlie they both stood in the middle of the open drawbridge firing at the enemy who was too busy ignoring them and trying to shoot me where I was ducked behind a wall trying to recover hp. And when a heavy armored guy ran into Chloe, it took a dozen tries but she knocked him out before he could reach me. :D

I agree with ND. The Walking Dead, as a series, isn't at all scary. Though, put yourself in their shoes, and a couple close encounter like they had and best believe you'd remember that moment for a LONG time. I'm interested in seeing how exactly they're going to do that. Most of the game looks open, while I'm sure there's going to be some close corridor area, most of the game, I assume, takes place outside. Perhaps a few hordes and narrow escapes? Who knows!? The atmosphere and soundtrack must be top notch in order for this to work. Though, ND's track record speaks for itself, they'll do fine and deliver.

thats exactly the vibe im getting from this.kinda think of condemned 2.its you against one enemy up close and personal.not you versus 100 enemies and you have to try and run away from them and take them down externally, a more up close and personal approach.they had a massive preview of it in the latest gameinformer, reading it just really reminded me of condemned 2.

This game is going to run circles around U3, IMO. Looks like a brave new frontier for gaming and love the healing idea as it is something I'm experimenting with myself for my own game design and would love to see ND's take.

I watched those Game Informer previews and the Naughty Dog guys are just so intriguing, I'd love to get an internship there, so much to learn.I hope The Last of Us is going to be a difficult game, which sounds like it with the enemy AI and health mechanics.